wedding night and photographing a prom?

I was fortunate to experience a very nice ceremony last night. Celeste's friend Joyce was married, and i was the photographer.... It was alot of fun, the people were great, the food was outstanding, and the reception included a group of people that could actually dance!!!!

The ceremony/reception had all facets of an american wedding... but simplified.. by about 10,000USD. There were no elaborate settings, no wait staff, no loud DJ. Just a young boy popping in CD's every once in a while, friends of the brides serving the guests and cooking all the food, etc..

It was a nice experience..
The wedding parties arrived via pickup trucks with people filled in the bed, they marched in singing and, by Botswana law, had to married before the sun went down..
or 6pm..

So the religious ceremony was stopped(b/c we were running late), they signed the papers, then the ceremony continued.

Joyce's brother made the dress and the suit for her fiance(Modie) and I was the photographer...
I was thankful for the time and I think have landed a few more jobs in the near future..one of the photos is a group of boys playing soccer in the courtyard of the church.. during the ceremony.

On another note, I stopped at the photo shop to pick up a memory card, there was a group of high school girls trying to get help with their camera.. they wanted to take a photo of their group for a friend, they asked for help, I took their photo with my camera, they liked it so much, they want me to photograph their prom...
I told them they need to talk to the "prom committee/administration,etc", they told me they were the prom committee.. it happens in November, so I may be taking photos for a high school prom.. The girls were very cool, and attempted to talk like Americans(very successful). Their photo is the group.

Not much else to say.... Jacob is going out to eat with his friends Ryan and Pavle, then to a movie, while Michelle and I head to a Mozambiquan festival this evening.. Should be fun..
I am taking Jacob, Kate and Maura to Khama Rhino Sanctuary tomorrow to take some game drives and stay at the Lentswe Lodge.. http://www.lentswe.com/ Our plan is to hunt for some Rhino.. We are staying in the CLiff Lodge, which has an unbelievable view of the sky at night...Hoping for no clouds.. I think our chances are pretty good.

fruit freakshow and our little convicts

Not much to report. still sunny as all get out.. No clouds for 4 weeks now..looks like another beautiful day today... it's getting old.

We took the kids to the grocery store last night to get a few things.. We came home with a bag of bananas and Maura found a double banana in the batch. Pretty crazy eh?the photos are obviously of the 4 little ones(maura and kate are sporting their new pj's. Jacob opted out of the photo shoot.. THe kids look like convicts, who are getting their mug shots taken..kate and Maura look like they were pulled right out of their bed and dragged to the station.

today I went to Odi to take some UC law students(believe it or not) to get some weavings.. They are here interning with the government and will be here until August. i ran into them at the Pic and Pay supermarket, they looked lost and brand new(like we did last August). we got to talking, only to find out they were from Cincy..

that's it for now.. the long weekend is here.. The 3 older kids and i are going to Khama rhino sanctuary on Monday. I am heading out to photograph a wedding here in town.. all for now..

slideshow of chobe now ready!!!

My god, it's taken me long enough to get this together, but I finally have something for you to see. Here's some photos of our trip to Chobe, I hope you enjoy them.. This will be the last time you see Chobe until hopefully November, when we try to head up before we leave in December..

It is truly an unbelievable place.. Here's the slideshow...



again.. copy and paste into your browser
The wildlife can be so abundant that you become an animal snob during your stay there.. You find yourself driving past elephants on the second day thinking.. "Ah, it's only a group of 10 elephants.. let 's see what else is here." It is totally quiet, with nothing around you.. except for wild animals, some that could potentially kill you in 3.5 second.
We are fortunate to have a 4 x 4 vehicle and can go anywhere in Chobe, which we did... We went about 20-25 miles into the park, which I think is about 1/2 in....there is no tarred road, no one policing the area to make sure people are safe..nothing.. It's kind of frightening at first, but really a true "wild " experience. The only people that work in the park is the people who work at the gate..(pictured) We entered the Sedudu gate, but there is no fence.. the animals roam freely , can be seen on the side of the road, near and around the village, etc...
I hope you enjoy the photos...

In terms of today.. not much going on.. I've been shopping for fruit at a local market/mall (BBS). Every time I park there this guy named Michael finds me and says he's "keeping my car safe for me". which basicaly means he saw it, knows its mine and knows that he can always get a few pula out of me.. Shopping for fruit here is a daily thing.. the kids eat nothing but fruit.. I'm not complaining, but the amount of fruit they eat is disgusting... THeir favorite is Nartjies(sp?) like tangerines..... they're very good, but Jacob and Kate leave the peels everywhere.. I mean everywhere.. in pants, in the bed, on the couch, etc.. Jacob has a soccer game today against Broadhurst.. I don't think they've won a match yet this year... Playing the locals is a daunting task.. and one they are not very successful at.

Ok,, that's about it today... I am meeting with the bishop of a local church regarding the wedding I am photographing tomorrow night... Should be cool..Other than that, we are preparing for a long weekend with the kids.. i am planning on taking the older 3 up to the Rhino sanctuary to spend a day chekcing out animals and eating good pizza at Lentswe lodge.. We'll see what happens..
All for now.

Tuesdays news..

Tuesday has no news.. we are continuing to chug away at school and deal with Jude's stinky feet.. His feet smell like a Heineken beer that's been left out all night. It's gross. I went to the store "Pep" to get him some shoes, they are just too big for his feet. I have to take them back, fill out 10 forms and answer several questions as to why I don' t want the shoes.

Jacob had an oral report last night on his trip to Durban.. He still needs to write about his experiences... one of these days. Anyway, it was a great site to see. each child in his class was designated to write about a specific event of the trip.He is becoming very independant and growing up..Jacob's event was general... "spending time on the beach." He did a great job as did all the kids in his class. Judging from the slides they showed, the trip looked like a great time.
We have been asked to go on another camping trip to Khutse(lion country)... this will take place in a few weeks.. for 3 nights this time.. Michelle and I have not discussed who is going... we may pass it up and head to the desert instead.. there is a half marathon race in Ghanzi, on the edge of Botswana and Namibia. So we'll see. I am thinking i may give Michelle the opportunity to experience the lions and hyenas in Khutse if she wishes.. There's no reason why I have to have all of the fun.The picture I posted today is one of accomodations in Ghanzi... traditional Bushman huts.. I can picture Jude destroying the sides of one these..

Other than that, nothing new.. No clouds in the sky for the past many weeks..
Last note... Jude has learned to climb out of his crib... He gets out, sometimes climbs into Franny's, sometimes turns on the radio and tunes in a channel, or simply begins to wander around the upstairs.. Franny continues to throw strange fits when she gets mad. Her favorite is backing up into walls..
We have nothing to look forward to this week, but the kids have a long weekend this weekend, and a big 4th of July party next weekend. i have my first gig on Friday... I am the "photographer" for a local Mormon wedding(one of Celeste's friends) Should be fun.

saturday... not much to report

just thought i'd take a minute to put down a couple words.. Not much going on this afternoon. we are having our friends the Caplans over for dinner... they head back to the U.S. in 2 weeks. jacob is in the back yard teaching his friends Shreyast, Atong and Stephen how to play cornhole..
What a cool name... Atong... I 'm not sure how it's going.. None of them are old enough to drink yet, so probably not that great...
They just got back from seeing a movie at riverwalk Mall..
For some reason.... our backyard smells like a Slim Jim...
Kate is spending the night over at her friend Hannahs house. Maura and the twins are watching Dora while I write this and search for homes online.... Kate and I were looking at a calendar this morning and realized that we only have about 5.5 months left in botswana.. and while i'm excited about coming home, I'm not ready to say goodbye to this place.. We're going to have to make the most of our time here...

Working on getting a video slide show of all the animals from our chobe trip... it'll happen soon.. I'm sure all are waiting impatiently...
Hope everyone has a nice weekend..

Jacob and cross country and soccer

today is friday and we are settling in for an evening of popcorn, sprite and movies. disney channel here plays a movie every friday night, so tonight it's "Wild One" . It's about some lion that gets out of a zoo and gets shipped to Africa.. or something like that...
one thing i forgot to mention that Matt and Cathy saw while they were here was jacob's soccer game.. He played in a match against the Baobab School, they lost 3-1. i don't have any photos, I was too busy trying to stop Jude and Franny from sliding down a glass infested hill... But it was classic African soccer.. No grass, dust,,etc.. I'll get some photos from my brother and sister and put them up soon. Jacob is also participatin in Cross Country and doing well. i think his first meet he finished 18 th out of 50th.. and is supposedly running a sub 8 minute mile..Iwonder if he can keep up with his old man..

today Kate had tennis and is starting her work on a serve..She needs to learn how to throw a ball up in the air first, but is doing well.. Kate is also involved in drama,games , soccer, setswana, physical challenges and science after school.

I am involved in nothing and trying to take more photos..
I took the books and frisbees that my brother and sister brought for the orphanage out to Mmangkodi today.. It was a great experience.. Jude and Franny made the trek with me, played in the dirt and met some of the children.. They were very excited about the books and asked for some more.. Apparently, they come in handy..and the kids love them..

So I plan on asking for more...or if anyone is interested in sending some . please let me know... They have alot of early teen, age 8-12 books and would love some more geared towards kids who are 2-6..

ok... that's it for now...One last video for the week. this one is of elephants, the sun setting and hippos from our trip to Chobe.. Hope you like it... Other videos are posted on the past 2 blog entries.
Here's the video.. Have a great Friday!!!

monkeys

Nothing new to report today....
kids are playing in the backyard with books and a tricycle, while I write this.. The weather is perfect. Here's some baboons trekking through Chobe... there were literally hundreds and hundreds of them..at the end, there's a shot of one baboon eating elephant poop.. They do that sort of thing...alot.



sorry.. don't know why you arent' getting a direct link..
I'll work on a photo slideshow and a few more videos of the trip.. If you want to see the lions , it's located on the post from yesterday..

All for now.

Goodbye Matt and Cathy

Sorry for the absence of posts this past week.. I was busy hanging out with Matt and Cathy and showing them some of the sites of this great place..
I think they had a good time here. They were able to see the kids school, meet my friends in Gabane, eat at Apache Spur, try a fatcake and go to Chobe National park. The trip to Chobe was outstanding... 10 hours of driving through the country, seeing nothing after nothing.. small villages, cattle, people sitting by the side of the road, going God knows where, and lots of potholes.. Only about 8 hours into the drive to see elephants on the side of the highway.. Then is when you realize you are very far from home.
While in Chobe we took our wonderful Mitsubishi Pajero(aka Babs) through the park.. you have to have a 4x4.. Perfect weather, perfect sunrises and sunsets.. We tracked a pack of 5 lions for about 3 hours(that came 3 feet from our car), saw over 200 elephants, baboons, giraffes, cape buffalo, hippos, hyenas and wild dogs, amongst other animals.. We ate warthog, impala, saw a snake, were attacked by a screeching owl, were almost attacked by an elephant, took malaria medicine, saw tradtional dancing and singing and met Calvin, our waiter.

Matt and cathy learnt the Botswana handshake, great phrases like "ke Kopa", "sharpo" and paid a woman 1 pula each to use a public toilet.

I will be posting several videos, photos, etc from the trip.. starting with some of the lion video.. This does in no way do the experience justice.. and I'm sure Matt and Cathy have better footage. But their first morning game drive, we found this crew of lions and were fortunate enough to follow them for at least 2.5 hours..



In the next few days I'll put up the elephants, baboons and some others... I hope you enjoy them.

Family here is doing great..Nothing much more to report... Michelle is still busy with work. Kate got another award at school today...for "creating interesting news and reports about her weekends and adding wonderful illustrations".. or something like that..Jacob is very busy with school work and after school activities... while Maura continues to love school.. The twins are in serious destructive mode and enjoyed an evening of destroying everything in their path tonight as I helplessly cleaned up everything they knocked over..
Hope all is well at home.. keep in touch.. and keep tuned in for some good videos.. photos..

One last thing... Kate told us yesterday the boys in her class were acting as bodyguards for some of the girls in her class... she had 5 bodyguards..

thanks matt and cathy for making the trek over to see us... Go siame.. or as Jude says... Go salami!!!

Matt and Cathy here!!

Ok, Cathy and Matt have arrived, they've spent 2 full days here and we will be heading off to Chobe tomorrow.. Yesterday we went to see the pottery at Gabane, walked around the village hung out with the kids, went for a game drive and chased a bunch of ostriches around.(video to come). ... Today we'll go to the Main Mall, check out some more crafts and then head out to Jacob's soocer game at 1:30 at Baobab school... A few things... They caught a flight from NYC to Senegal, but it was delayed 2 hours b/c the toilet didn't work..They were going to miss their connecting flight in Senegal,but there was another plane there due to a cancelled flight from the day before.. otherwise they would have spent the night in Dakar.They had to spend the night in Jo'burg, but Delta put them up for free...then they had an 8:30 am flight to Botswana, but it was delayed 45 minutes because they couldn't locate the pilot.. Classic.. Then, their luggage was missing, but we got it yesterday.... I was told, after retrieving it, to have it checked out in customs, but no one was at the customs desk,so we simply walked through with no check of anything..Thank God because Cathy was packing some serious artillery in her suitcase....

It's cold this morning, Matt, Cathy and Michelle took the two older kids up to school and will be heading to the Baylor clinic to hear the morning singing which occurs every morning. Looking forward to our trip north, check back to the blog in a few days... Hopefully we'll have some photos and videos of our adventures.

matt and cathy.... Know your African geography?

here's the lowdown.. Matt and Cathy decided to start their journey a day early, to try and avoid any risk of not getting here... Oh the trials and tribulations of flying standby.. It is truly an adventure... We've been watching them via computer for the past 24 hours.. (it's like a Tv show). Michelle's dad was kind enough to meet them at the airport, get them on a flight to NYC, instead of Atlant(I don't think they were going to get out of the ATL) and head to Dakar, where they boarded another plane and are currently flying over the Atlantic Ocean about to cross over the coast of Namibia...which reminds me of the first time we made this trek. I was absolutely blown away by the site of sand dunes meeting the ocean... and then a sea of sand... and then a sea of landscape with no roads,no nothing.. It was cool to think ....1. I was flying over a land that I couldn't even find on a map and 2. that we were going to live here...

Ok, enough.. so how good is your African geography?... i put an African map on today's post for you to look at.. My knowledge of Africa was absolutely horrible.. But living here., has made me a little more knowledgeable...the capitol of Djibouti is Djibouti!!!!!

So... Matt and cathy may have to spend the night in Jo'burg tonight.. but will be here first thing tomorrow morning.. THerefore, the blog may take a small hiatus as we try to enjoy our company.. But if I get a chance, we'll post some photos and brief descriptions of what we've been up to.. On Friday , we head to kasane and will be there for 3 days...

Nothing else to report... What's the capitol of Guinea? Togo? Burkina Faso? I have no idea as well..

Ready to get depressed?

Hi everyone, its Michelle. Andy asked me to take the blog off his hands for a night. Unfortunately for you, most of my material is not as uplifting as his. However, it might be kind of interesting to some. So, I just thought I'd share with you stories about 2 kids that have been on my mind lately...
Before I start, Jude got his first haircut since birth today. He looks completely different (to me) and I think people will finally stop asking if he's a girl. We don't have a camera battery yet (its flying over with Matt and Cathy this week) so we'll post pictures when that arrives. Actually, for those of you who remember Jacob at that age, I think you'll get a kick out of the resemblence.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know about a couple of patients. One of them is a 16 year old guy who is quite sick, and to whom the title refers. Sadly, I think his story is a really scary prelude to what might be the near future for a lot of the kids we take care of. He is 16 now, infected through birth from his mother who died 7years ago. After that, he kind of bounced around among family members, with difficulty finding someone to take good care of him consistently. When you take antiretroviral medications for HIV (sometimes called ARVs or HAART), it is absolutely critical that you take the meds essentially perfectly. If you take the meds any less than 95% of the time, you risk your virus learning to become resistant to the meds, and that necessitates a change in your regimen. So for a month, that works out to being able to miss ONE dose. No other disease requires this level of adherence. Its actually amazing to me that so MANY of our patients are able to do this so well. If you can think, though, of the last time you had to take antibiotics or give them to your kid, you can imagine how difficult this would be.
Anyhow, if your virus becomes resistant, you have to change the regimen. There are a finite number of drugs available, and in Botswana (and in Africa) the options are less than the US. For these kids who have had suboptimal medication administration by family members, the options are starting to run out. This is the case with this boy, K. He has been through 4 different combinations of meds. Right now, we have him on 4 different meds(rather than 3) in the only reasonable, available combination left. It isn't working, though. He is 16 yrs old, he's the height of Jacob when he was about 9 yrs old (I think I've talked before about the capability of this virus to seriously stunt these kids' growth), and currently, K weighs 20 kg (about 44 lbs). He was recently admitted to the hospital because he required a blood transfusion. In the hospital here, once you've turned 13, you are now an adult. So I would see him on the male medical ward - this very tiny guy in a bed amongst 14 coughing adult men. He still had enough energy to talk me into buying him some lunch, though. He didn't like what they were serving from the kitchen. He is an easy patient for me, because his English is quite good. However, that also means that he can articulate some really depressing things. I saw him a few months back when it was becoming clear that this disease is probably going to kill him. It appeared that he was taking the meds, but in spite of that his CD4 cell count (the disease fighting cells affected by HIV; less than 200 is full blown AIDS, he's currently at 154) was going down and the amount of virus in his blood was going up. I asked him what he was thinking, and he just said "I'm really frightened."
I guess I bring this up because I'm afraid this is where so many of our kids are heading. Currently, the worldwide standard of care is to try and diagnose babies as early as possible, and if you find a baby is infected and is less than 12 months of age, you automatically start HAART. Now, this kid is looking at a lifetime of meds, and can fail once, maybe twice at most. I went to a meeting for government health officials last week, a presentation on Botswana's success in testing infants. They are probably the most successful southern African country to implement many of the programs that address HIV. Some of the talk was about goals for prevention of mother-to-child transmission. There was talk about cost-benefit ratios, etc, which IS absolutely necessary in public health. However, I at least was able to share K's story in an appeal to ignore the "acceptable" 1% transmission and try to reduce transmission to zero, so we can focus on the group of kids we already know are affected.
The second kid is one who is the poster child for the family you wish every kid had. This boy, O, is 8 years old and is being cared for by his 22 year old brother. Their parents also passed away and O was briefly in the care of his grandmother, who by all accounts is a pretty miserable person (very atypical of most of the grannies here, who are doing a huge amount of mothering now that so many moms have passed away). I don't know if you've gotten the drift from Andy's Gabane posts, but jobs are few and far between here. A lot of people go to South Africa, work and send the money back. O's brother had a good job at a zoo near Johannesburg, and was enjoying his life. Then I guess he came back for a visit and saw what was happening. He then quit the job, got a place in Gaborone, and started raising O. He has an interest in graphic design and was printing T-shirts and selling them at the local mall. I guess that wasn't cutting it, because now he gives the meds, goes to a job working 9 pm to 7 am every night pumping gas, comes home, gives the meds, gets O to school, and then works on the T-shirts. I asked him how long he was planning on taking care of O. A lot of child care arrangements here are fluid - kids come in and seem to be staying with a different family member every month. So it was very surprising when he said "until he's grown." You know, I realize that people all over the world do very self-sacrificing things to raise their kids and help their families. But sometimes it is extremely affecting when the person is sitting right in front of you and you can see how much they've given up to do the right thing. A lot of these adult children who have now been saddled with their younger siblings have a lot of anger and resentment, and rightfully so. I had another 25 yr old brother of a 12 yr old patient tell me point blank that he never asked to be a father and he was going to live his own life. So O's brother is really impressive. I think we're going to come back with a whole bunch of T-shirts.
All for now, thanks for indulging me. All of these kids are great, but some are really hard to stop thinking about...

the great things about the U.S.A., Happy birthday Kev!!!

Yesterday I realized my battery for my camera was not charging after a day of attempting to recharge... I was very concerned, but was confident that the photo shop i go to had a replacement battery... I went there yesterday morning, they were very helpful, but didn't have what I needed.. He told me to go to another place and try them, they had a "direct line to Johannesburg." I asked them, they told me the battery would cost about 100 USD, plus 20$ for shipping... for a battery! Plus they didn't know how long it would take to get here..

I got online, checked out the prices, saw that this was twice as much as home.. called a photo shop in Cincy, they had it in stock , I bought it in 3 minutes over the phone, and saved 60 $.Thank God my sister and brother are coming in 4 days!!! Cathy , you are the coolest!!!!

/div>

We are totally used to the way things happen here, but every once in a while, it's nice to work something out the old fashioned way.....

Things here are outrageously expensive.. Botswana is really unable to produce anything for itself, and relies mainly on South Africa for all its goods.. That's why toilet paper costs 6 bucks, 9 slices of lunnchmeat $4 and poultry, pork, diapers and milk prices are all escalated.

/div>

they do make great bread here which is very cheap and "fatcakes" which are self explanatory, which are cheap..Oh yeah. .. and beer and wine are cheap...

I went to Gabane yesterday to visit with the potters and an artist friend named Grand, but took my camera(even though the battery was almost dead) just in case... Little did I know that it was a school holiday, so the place was flooded with kids... The kids were playing soccer in the dusty streets, eating lunch , etc. as I drove through the village..

The children in Gabane are much better at staring at a foreigner than the adults.. They will stare at you as you drive by, as you pass, and then continue to stare as you're 8 miles down the road.. but always with a smile and a wave. They are all sweet as can be.... and appreciate a photo opportunity...

there were 2 older boys, Kabo and Motibi(sp?) who greeted me when i got out of the truck, held my hands and walked with me as I tried to speak to them in broken Setswana.... they wanted their photos taken with my truck, but I told them that I had to drop off some photos to a home nearby.. They wanted to see them, turns out the photos were of their aunts and uncles.We went to their home, they picked up their soccer ball( a rolled up sock), and we went to their home.... Of course I had to take their photos, and we had a great time...The mother had her daughter dress up in her school uniform for me and they loved how they looked in the photos..>
it was a nice and unexpected morning...
Not much else going on today.. Michelle is going out to see "sex and the city" with friends while I am planning on a night of cornhole after the babies go down... It is getting very cold here at night, so a fire is a must...

One last note... Happy Birthday to my older brother Kevin..... He is 23 today!!!!

here's his Birthday card from the kids... I don't know if you can view it.. but we'll see. i think you'll need to copy and paste it into your browser.
http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/share_view/GqDsUyqYoGlbdGJLTtjrEbrx

All for now.

tuesday night blackout

As planned by the government, our weekly power outaged occcurred, right on time.. right around 6 pm every Tuesday, we have our power turned off.. I knew it was coming, but they caught me off guard by starting it about 15 minutes early this week.. The photo at the top is one of Jacob rotatin his head around while doing his homework via headlamp. We had dinner for the final time with our friends the Westers.. They head back to Nashville on Saturday... they've been here for 8 years..We are sad to see them leaving, they kind of took us under their wing one day, and reassured us that picking up our kids and moving them across the world to experience a whole other culture was in fact, a wonderful thing. They came on a year contract like us, fell in love with the place , and stayed for 8 years...

With the death of my dad, I have been struggling to really enjoy this experience lately... It is has been hard to pick it back up and be happy. My dad is in my thoughts constantly and at times the only thing I want is to do is get on a plane and head back...But this place is such a warm and simple place, and life is amazingly relaxed here and I don't want the experience to pass us by.. We have loved all of our experiences here. But, it's not home.. and i think the kids are yearning for life to pick up a bit and get hectic again.... at times, It's hard as Americans to live on african time.. We have no patience. .... We will be back home in December, but i can assure you, we'll be back here..... We'll just settle for a while, raise the kids and then perhaps retire in Africa..... or perhaps work something out where we can come periodically. the place kind of gets to you and sticks.. In a very good way...

We had a bit of a rain storm last night, all the locals talked about how strange that was... "It never rains in June". here's photos from a walk I took yesterday.... One note.. the man with the condom sign above his head... condoms are everywhere!!!!! Even in the airport as soon as you arrive here... They are everywhere... The other photos are children obviously eating some lunch. A woman prepping herself for a photo shoot... Thembi at her tuck shop/hair braiding business... and so on.. Ok... not much more.. big plans this weekend... Cornhole night on friday.. Michelle is going to see "Sex and the City" and then i think on saturday... we're going to see the new "narnia" movie.

One last note... I mention Joyce the woman who ran the shop that made the dresses... A few posts back... I gave her the photos i printed out of her, she is making me an authentic Botswana shirt and hat.... for free!!! I pick it up on friday.. I can't wait.. i'm sure i'll wear it all around town and be the biggest poser there is.... She said i'll look truly Botswana. I laughed and she said.. "why are you laughing?" i told her to look at my skin...

hello from the little boogers, June 2nd

it's been a while since I've posted a video of anyone.... so here's one from this morning... It's jude and franny in our backyard....


The weather is perfect right now.. cold at night but awesome all day long.. probably feels like home....

If you haven't noticed from the posted photos.... I think we have 2 more lefties on our hands.... I am so excited.. 2 more crafty left handed pitchers. My dad would be happy....

Nothing else to say today.. it's 11 am now.. meeting Michelle and kids for lunch before they head off to their afternoon activities.. Kate is now taking Board games, computers, Music, arts and Crafts on Wednesdays and on Mondays takes Drama, Soccer, Netball and Traditional Setswana. On Fridays she takes Tennis with her coach Kobus... she was just promoted to Level 2!!!! Jacob is now busy with chess, Drama, Soccer and Cross Country, while also training for his walk across the Pans. Jacob's soccer team is called Northside United.

It sounds very hectic, but it's not.... i go up to eat lunch with them at one... and pick them up at 4 that's it... it's awesome... As I've stated before... the pace here agrees with me and Michelle..

not much else to report, except that we have had an unfortunate string of buying meat that is rotten and milk that is sour... It's been bad... It can get tricky here when buying meat, milk, fruit, etc...

Oh yeah,, today's grocery item is Nutella... a chocolate spread that poses as crack for Michelle and Jacob.... they eat it with peanut butter and bread to make a deliciously healthy sandwich.

we are counting the days til Matt and Cathy get here.....

the kids speak!!!

I thought I would pass the mic over and let you get the kids thoughts today...

Here's Kate....
Hi Gracie and Grace! I miss you all.
I like my school because we are learning about time on a clock and i know half past and o'clock.
My friends names are Hannah, Lindiwe, Wesi and Luba. My school has neat playgrounds, and I like my house alot..
My favorite things have been going to Durban, seeing dolphins, seeing lions, elephants, giraffes and ostriches...
I miss everyone else too..

here's Maura..
I love my dollies, and I got a peguin and I love my best friend Tumi and Katie and I love my mom and I love my dad(I swear she said it, not me) and I bought flower shoes, but the flowers are purple and I bought them at "Ackermans" and my mommy bought me a snack and I love someone who is from school..her name is Jing-Jing . I love everybody else and I love the babies... and I love me too. And I brought new clothes from a store and I really love me for myself... and I love macaroni , cheese pizza and ham...and chicken.
I love swans and I love lions... I like baby goats. I love Jacob too and I love mommy and the babies, really. I love chips too.that's all

We are still trying to light a fire under Jacob to tell everyone about his Durban trip. He was pretty busy watching American Sportscenter (only broadcast here on Sunday afternoon), so we'll have to keep everyone in suspense. Until then....feel the love from Maura....